YatBazaar

It's Twitter Tuesday at YatPundit Podcast. Today I explain why I say on my Twitter bio: "Not a social media expert. Have real job" while working with Greta on Yatmedia.

http://yatpundit.com/content and look for today's date.

So, on my way home from the grocery, I had NPR's All Things Considered on, and I had a "Driveway Moment," while listening to a segment on Tyler Perry.

Yes, that Tyler Perry. You know, Madea.

I'm the first one to reach for the remote if "Tyler Perry's Anything" comes on the boobtoob, but this piece captured my interest, mainly because @NPRnews interviewed people with whom I agree:

Filmmaker Spike Lee used racially loaded words to describe Perry's TV shows: "coonery and buffoonery." Melvin Peters, a professor of African-American literature at Eastern Michigan University, says Lee has a point.

"Black women slapping a man upside the head, telling jokes about the crackhead woman character ... You're on perilous ground when you present these things as humorous," Peters says. "What crack has done to the African-American community and women in particular — these are troubling things."

Then came the Driveway Moment.

Perry has most definitely moved away from Madea, He was one of the executive producers of Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire. Mo'Nique won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Precious' abusive mother. Now, Perry is tackling other serious work:

Written by playwright Ntozake Shange, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf ran on Broadway and was filmed for public television decades ago.

The play lyrically delves into different aspects of black womanhood through a chorus of seven actresses, colorfully identified as Lady in Red, the Lady in Yellow, the Lady in Blue.

Wow! The segment--and Perry--totally captivated me, finally cracking me up at the end:

Perhaps Perry can guide the play to a new generation of young women, says Peters, the professor of African-American literature. "As long as he doesn't play one of the roles, OK?"

Go have a listen.

I got popped by a speed-trap camera near Jackson and Prytania over the holidays. Mrs. YatPundit paid the ticket (something like $130 with the fine and fees) as soon as the notice arrived, in spite of my protests. She's much more level-headed and doesn't want to have to bail me out of Central Lockup for a traffic attachment. Still, I didn't think I was speeding and wanted to challenge the ticket in court. Fortunately for me, there's a lawyer out there who wants to play in class-action land on behalf of his client, another attorney named Joseph McMahon, III:

McMahon said Reese agreed with him that the city failed to produce proper affidavits, required by the red-light-camera law, attesting to the reliability of the camera system and the fact that, based on the recorded images, a violation had occurred.

McMahon and his attorney, Anthony Maska, challenged the ticket, saying the city could not prove who was driving the vehicle and objecting to the introduction of the photographic and videotape evidence the city said proved McMahon's guilt.

A hearing officer rejected McMahon's claims and found him guilty. Rather than pay a fine and fees totaling almost $150, he appealed to Civil District Court, and Reese on Wednesday issued a summary judgment in his favor.

McMahon said Reese agreed with him that the city failed to produce proper affidavits, required by the red-light-camera law, attesting to the reliability of the camera system and the fact that, based on the recorded images, a violation had occurred.

Here's the big problem with this: what if the city has to give back the $10million in camera-busted fines they collected last year? That could really back the city into a major financial corner.

LinkedIn Privateers
University of New Orleans Alumni Group

Welcome to the home of the LinkedIn Privateers, a LinkedIn group for UNO alums.

If you are a UNO alum and a member of LinkedIn, click this link to be invited to join the group:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/38530/76F4F4423440

You MUST list University of New Orleans in the "Education" section of your profile. If you don't, please message me on LinkedIn and explain why you wish to join the group. Otherwise, I will decline your request.

Some useful links:

LinkedIn Home
Members of LinkedIn Privateers

University of New Orleans
UNO Athletics
UNO Alumni Association

Some very interesting developments reported by Da Paper today in the on-going "clean-up" of government in Jefferson Parish. In the wake of the resignations of Parish President "Mad Aaron" Broussard and CAO (and likely future federal felon) Tim Whitmer, interim president Steve Theriot is making a lot of moves with respect to lawyers employed by the parish. He's suspended a former parish councilwoman and is considering firing a former 24th JDC judge and retired justice of the peace, both of whom are on the parish's part-time payroll.

At face value, all three moves appear to be good-goverment motivated. These are arguably well-connected people who have been feeding at the public trough for some time. The former councilwoman, Anne Marie Vandenweghe, played a bit part in the Whitmer/Broussard kabuki, in that she was one of the lawyers schlepping boxes of paperwork and records over to USA Letten's office on a regular basis. The fact that she was suspended rather than fired is interesting. There are more shoes dropping from Letten's office on this than at the Muses parade.

The other two "evaluations" taking place are also good examples of political in-breeding. Former 24th JDC Judge "Skip" Hand and retired JOP Steve Mortillaro are both on the parish part-time payroll, making $14K and $12K, respectively. Ironically, Skip Hand was beaten out by Mad Aaron for Mayor of Kenner back in the 1980s. He went on to become a State Representative, then district judge.

The problem with these moves and changes is not that they're justified. Even if Vandenweghe isn't somehow involved in Whitmer's troubles directly, it's questionable that a former elected official should have been hired in such a capacity in the first place. Same goes for Hand and Mortillaro. The problem here is that Theriot is making the decisions. If an impartial evaluator of the situation came to these conclusions, nobody would blink an eye, but Theriot is a former elected official himself. He's also from the west bank, and he's looking at jettisoning three former east bank office-holders. Revenge, perhaps? Is there a behind-the-scenes agenda here?

Think I'm a conspiracy theorist? Consider this example. Back in the 1980s, a guy I knew from UNO ran against Skip Hand for state House of Representatives. This was going to be one of those grass-roots, knock-on-doors, no-money campaigns. Hand spent almost $40K to defeat this guy. Now, Skip wasn't all that many years removed from the financial shock of losing the Kenner mayor's race to Mad Aaron, then spending a not-inconsiderable sum to become a legislator. Still, he was motivated to not just win, but utterly crush a young political unknown. It didn't add up at the time.

Not even a year after that election, then-Mayor of New Orleans Sidney Barthelmy got caught awarding a four-year, full-ride scholarship to Tulane University to his son. That act (which was perfectly legal, by the way) exposed that not just the mayor had Tulane scholarships to give away, but state legislators as well. All of a sudden, it made sense why Hand spent so much money to keep his gig.

Such is the problem when wading through waters so muddy as local politics. Nothing is ever as it seems.

here's the Camel-Toe Lady Steppers:

f'sure

Vitty-cent is nothing if not Mitch McConnell's man. When he's not some prostitute's little boy, of course:

Vitty-cent and the rest of the Party of No are giving the Dems such great fodder with their hypocrisy. Look at how Piyush runs around the state posing for those oversized-check photos while he and his podnas go on the boobtoob, saying that Everything Obama Does Is Bad.

Thanks to whomever on twitter shared this link this morning--it scrolled by too fast for me to see and properly give credit.

Mixing local politicians and schools rarely ends well in Jefferson Parish. The most recent example is Thomas Jefferson High School, the parish's only public magnet school on the west bank. There are a number of things in Da Paper's article that just don't add up.

The background: Some parents and students at Thomas Jefferson are unhappy with the changes to policies and procedures made by first-year principal Christine Templet:

The changes, including a policy that keeps bathroom doors locked at all times and increased searches for weapons and contraband, have shifted the tenor on campus to one where teenagers are treated more like criminals than high-achieving students, parents and students said. The new policies have also cast doubt on the ability of Templet and her assistant principal Sharon Meggs-Hamilton to lead the magnet school, parents and students said.

"It's more like a prison camp," said Angel Vu, 18, a former senior at Thomas Jefferson who transferred to Cox in December. "That's what everyone calls it."

OK, it's a public school. Some schools are indeed war zones and should be treated more like prisons. Thing is, Thomas Jefferson only has an enrollment of 284 students. That's not a large student body for any school, much less a high school. It's also a magnet school, which implies that the student body is working at academic levels above the average student in the school district. So, why the need for all this:

Students also have alleged that the administration has ramped up the severity of random weapon and contraband searches that are conducted on campus.

While administrators are supposed to sweep classes twice a month, using a wand-like metal detector, students said they have been asked to remove their shoes and administrators have sifted through the contents of their bags and touched them during the searches.

If there's a need for increased random weapons searches in a magnet school, there is a fundamental problem with the district's plans for such schools.

Is Thomas Jefferson really this much of a dangerous place, or is there a problem with management? Da Paper tries to connect the dots between these issues and parent/student dissatisfaction and principal lacking in administrative experience. The fact that Templet is married to State Representative Ricky Templet (R-Gretna), does get my attention. Ms. Templet moves from an analyst/consulting gig dealing with special education to a principal's desk, passing over assistant principals from many schools. Magnet schools are usually considered to be plum positions for administrators. Naturally folks in the high school trenches might be unhappy with such an appointment. This makes it all the more difficult for the district to explain why the wife of a local politician (and ally of the school board member in whose district the school is located) gets the job.

Still, if the district was pressured to appoint this woman to an administrative position, it makes sense to keep her in a small school with (relatively) harmless students. You'd think a principal in such a school would not want to draw too much attention to herself, lest that attention shine light on both herself and her husband. That's why bathroom lockdowns and weapons searches in a magnet school make even less sense. Is Ms. Templet in so far over her head that she can't handle even the top students?

Or maybe the west bank has really become such a disaster zone that a magnet school can't survive. Either way, the district and the school board needs to provide a definitive answer.

Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris

Remember, man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.

That's what the priest says when dips his thumb in ashes and traces a cross on your forehead on Ash Wednesday. Today marks the first day of Lent in the Roman Church.

But we New Orleanians don't let it slow us down too much. St. Patrick's Day and St. Joseph's Day are both really just extensions of Carnival. No meat on Fridays? In crawfish season? No worries!